The former prime minister is godfather to Murdoch's daughter Grace with wife Wendi Deng.

At the Leveson, billionaire Murdoch recalled the then-Labour leader speaking "convincingly about the ability of a new Labour Party to energise Britain" at a News Corp conference in Hayman Island, Australia, in 1995.

Two years later, Murdoch's The Sun newspaper switched its allegiance from the Conservative Party to Labour. Blair swept to Number 10 in a landslide election victory in May 1997.

But in his written statement to the Leveson Inquiry, Murdoch said that Blair had not expressly asked him for support, and he had never asked anything of Blair.

"Mr Blair did not expressly request our support in 1995, 1997 or any other election, but he was a politician and I had no doubt that he would welcome the support of our newspapers and our readers," he said.

"I want to say that I, in 10 years of his power, never asked Mr Blair for anything."

Other witnesses expected to appear at the Royal Court of Justice inquiry include Vince Cable, the business secretary who was stripped of the power to arbitrate over the proposed Sky takeover after he was secretly recorded saying he had "declared war" on Murdoch.

Education secretary Michael Gove, home secretary Theresa May and justice secretary Ken Clarke are also expected to appear.